The Bond Girls
by Qihotex
Summary: Buffy's father isn't really who she thinks he is. Will she have time to find out? Will someone from his past try to keep them apart? A postChosen tale of familial discoveries.
1. Swiftly, Silently

**Disclaimer:** All BtVS characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Fox Television, and others. All "Bond" characters belong to Ian Fleming, and his designated heirs, and probably others. None of these people or organizations have read this nor endorsed it. The story idea might be mine but this is a derivative work.  
**Pairings:** None (Other than canon Willow/Kennedy), possible minor subtext between other characters. This may change **but** there will be**no** pairings with characters who do not appear or are not mentioned in the prologue. Guaranteed.  
**Summary:** How well does Buffy really know her father?  
**Spoilers:** Seasons 1-7 of BtVS. All of the Bond movies and Ian Fleming books.  
**AN1:** The prologue is a bit long so I've split it up for easier reading. After the prologue this becomes a traditional Bond story with a Buffy twist.

* * *

**Title:** _Swiftly, Silently_

It hadn't been a particularly long flight from Rome but Buffy found herself shivering in the damp airport. In her haste to get to the airport earlier that morning, she'd forgotten there was such a big difference between what the English and Italians considered an appropriate indoor temperature and hadn't dressed as warmly as she should have. After almost a year in Rome, Heathrow Airport in the early fall was cold and uncomfortable. Pulling her thin, Italian leather jacket closer provided no discernable warmth as she waited for Giles to meet her near her gate. 

After he'd insisted on meeting her at her gate when she'd called him before her flight left Rome, Buffy was surprised that he wasn't there to meet her. She wasn't helpless. She could have taken a taxi to the Council's London offices. But he'd claimed to need the extra time to speak with her privately. Already suspicious about the real reason for her sudden trip to London, Buffy didn't plan on letting him get away with thinking she was okay with being shoved on an early morning flight with only several hours warning. She couldn't think of any reason, short of an apocalypse, that excused his peremptory behavior. 

Thinking of all the things she would do to him when he showed up, Buffy stopped pacing and dropped down into a free seat near her gate before digging in her shoulder bag for her phone. She'd promised her sister that she would let her know as soon as she arrived in London. She couldn't call her at work but Dawn had insisted that she at least leave her a message on their answering machine or with Faith. She'd just finished listening to Dawn's cheery voice on the machine and was about to leave her a message when she heard the distinctive sound of Giles' measured stride behind her to her left. 

Automatically twisting her head in his direction and frowning, she held up her free hand and gestured at the phone in her other and silently asked him to wait while she left her message. "Dawn? I'm here. Right on time. Giles just showed up. Late. I'll give you a call later tonight and give you details. Bye!" Closing her phone and placing it back into her bag she turned completely in his direction and examined him critically from head to toe before addressing him in her most artificially cheerful voice. "Hey Giles! What's up?" It was the same voice she tended to use just before dismembering a demon that had bled all over her favorite shoes with her bare hands. 

She pretended to not see his involuntary step backwards at her tone. She didn't care that he knew she was annoyed with him. What little sympathy she might normally have had for him when dealing with any other angry slayer had been mitigated by the very recent memory of a leering Faith dragging her out of a warm bed and putting her on the earliest flight possible to London. Without so much as a cup of coffee to soften the blow. That he was the only person present who would sense her anger didn't bother her in the least. 

"So..." she continued in the same tone. "Care to explain?" 

"If you can wait until we are in the car, I'll try to explain everything." He told her with a neutral expression, gingerly taking her carry-on from her hands before heading back in the direction he'd come from. 

"Okay." She threw at him. "But this better be good!" She glared at him before hurrying to catch up. "Leaving my sister in Rome with Faith is not considered a good idea by any sane person. Dawn has a hard enough time staying out of trouble by herself. Who knows what'll happen when she's with Faith. Leaving the two of them together without an adult present is like leaving Xander alone with a bag of chips and asking him to guard them." She put on her sunglasses to protect her eyes as they crossed a long stretch of open ground between the terminal and parking garage. "I can almost guarantee that no good will come of it. They're a disaster waiting to happen. And it'll all be your fault." 

Giles simply shook his head and remained silent, in an obvious attempt to avoid becoming personally involved in another round of the Buffy-Faith-Dawn triangle. She glared at him from behind her sunglasses. She occasionally found his claims of neutrality in the on-going soap that was her life since they'd left Sunnydale aggravating. "Don't play innocent with me Giles! You're the one who sent her to Rome. You're just lucky we aren't trying to kill each other anymore." She shook her own head and sighed at his snort of amusement. "Lead on Macduff." she pronounced in her best attempt at a proper English accent. 

"Lay on, Macduff." He automatically corrected her as he led her deeper into the airport garage in search of his car. "Macbeth was challenging him to a duel." 

"Whatever." She groused. As they wandered through the garage she struggled to keep her temper under control. Whatever was going on, getting angry with Giles wouldn't be a very productive use of her energy. Her thoughts were brought to a sudden halt as she stared aghast at the car Giles had stopped in front of. She watched him unlock it and put her case in the trunk, not quite sure what to make of it. "What is that?" 

Giles gave her a look as if doubting her sanity. "A car." he told her. 

"Oh... kay..." She mumbled, looking at the strange bumper stickers and pop culture paraphernalia coating its exterior. "Tweed guy bought himself a clown car decorated in early geek." She muttered under her breath. 

"I heard that! It isn't my car." Giles protested before ushering her into the car. "We need to talk and Andrew's Mini was the only secure Council car available in London right now." 

"Secure car? Why do we need that?" She looked around the car. "Are you sure you just didn't want to take your inner geek out for a spin?" 

Giles grimaced at her attempt at humor. "Normally we would discuss this in my office. But we don't have time to go there before our meeting if you want to clean up first. 

"Meeting? What meeting?" Her stomach took that moment to growl. She flushed in embarrassment. "Any chance at lunch first? Some of us got up too early for a real breakfast." 

"We can have lunch at my flat." 

"Lunch at your flat? There's a perfectly good cafeteria at the office. They'll even deliver to your office. I've seen it happen." She stared at him as he backed the car out and exited the parking garage. "Sorry Giles, but I don't buy it. What's the real reason you've gone to so much trouble to keep me out of the office? It didn't get destroyed in the last London apocalypse and you forgot to tell me, did it?" She suggested with a laugh. 

"Umm... No." He cleared his throat nervously. "Other than Faith and your sister, no one knows you are in London. And no one else can know. Not even Willow or Xander." 

"Why? What's so secret about this meeting?" She frowned at him, feeling slightly at a loss. "Why can't anyone know I'm here for it?" 

He spoke without taking his eyes off the road. "I'm not sure how much you know about how the old Council operated...?" 

"A bunch of old guys in tweed watching slayers die because they thought that the Council was more important than the slayers they existed to support." She shrugged, dismissing the old Council's antiquated behavior while simultaneously wondering about the sudden change in topic. "What more do I need to know?" 

"More than that if you ever plan on taking over." He told her in the pedantic tone normally reserved for the moments spent pointing out her errors in judgement. 

"When I do what?" She stared at him in shock. "You so did not just say that!" she angrily told him. 

"I can't do this forever, Buffy." He sighed. "I'm getting too old to keep up. Someday you'll have to decide if you want to be more than just a slayer." 

"What about Willow?" Buffy mumbled. "Or even Xander? They would be much better at running the Council. Look what happened the last time I was in charge of things." She shivered, remembering the near disastrous results. "Heck, Faith would do a better job than I ever could." 

"You know that's not true." Giles told her firmly. "They all have their parts to play in the future of the Council but none of them have any desire to be ultimately responsible for the Council's fight against evil. You are the only person currently in the Council that they will all listen to." 

"How do you know this?" Before he could answer her, she stopped him. "Never mind. We can talk about all of that later. I'm sure that has nothing to do with this meeting you haven't told me anything about yet. So get on with it!" 

Giles frowned at her abrupt dismissal of the Council succession before continuing. "The old Council did not operate in a vacuum." 

"What does that mean?" She asked. 

"The Council maintained its influence over other organizations and governments by making promises and doling out useful information. The Council has always taken the long view of world events. They always assumed they would be around no matter what happened. Some past Council heads were very good at making promises they never expected to keep. As long as the Council dealt with demonic threats and left those governments free to play their own games no one tried to collect on those promises." 

"So... this meeting is with someone who has decided they want to collect on one of these promises?" Buffy scrunched her nose in disgust. "We can't just say it wasn't us and tell them we can't help?" 

"No, unfortunately." His age showed briefly in his eyes. "I wish we could start with a completely clean slate. We've managed to retrieve most of the old Council's money but there are still things we need from some of them. Dealing with governments is still necessary." 

"So who is it?" She asked nervously when he didn't immediately continue. 

"MI6." 

"And they would be whom?" Buffy asked, the name not sounding familiar. "And why haven't I heard of them?" 

"They are part of British Intelligence. And they don't exactly advertise." 

"Giles, we don't advertise either and all sorts of annoying people seem to know who we are." She thought about what he'd said. "So what are they? Spies or something?" 

"Or something." He admitted. "They deal with the human threats to the British government that are outside of normal channels and procedures." 

"So they hunt down 'Evil Overlord' types who are human?" She grinned at him in amusement. 

"Yes... in a manner of speaking." He looked over at her briefly while they waited for a light to change. "All of the bigger governments have departments like that; the United States, China, Russia, France, Japan and others. Normally, we try to stay out of their way and they stay out of ours." 

Buffy watched as he swiftly and efficiently dealt with London traffic. "So, you brought me all the way to London and sent Faith to Rome just so I could go to a meeting with these people? And you have no idea what the meeting is about? You didn't think it might be a trap?" 

She could see his hands whiten on the steering wheel with her comments but his eyes stayed on the road and his voice when he answered her was level and calm. "Yes. There was no choice." 

"We don't work for any government. Of course we have a choice. No matter what promises the old Council made." Buffy insisted. "There are more important things we could be doing." 

"Important?" Giles spared her a quick glance. "Is there something happening in Rome that I should know about?" 

Buffy blushed. "Okay. So I wasn't doing anything important for the Council in Rome! Just taking care of my sister!" she ground out through her embarrassment. "But isn't Faith too important to spend her time baby-sitting Dawn? Something I was already taking care of? Isn't there some apocalypse she's needed to stop?" 

"You know as well as I do that Dawn's internship in the Vatican Library this fall is important. And not just to her." Giles told her firmly. "The experience she is gaining there will be invaluable when she finishes Oxford and takes her place with the Council." 

"But why me?" Buffy asked, feeling a pout forming on her face. Nothing would change her opinion that leaving Faith in charge of her sister was not a good idea. "Faith is just as good as I am at slaying and she likes doing new things." 

"I don't know." Giles admitted. "When they asked for this meeting they specifically requested your presence. They are the ones insisting on absolute secrecy. Also, I don't think Faith is really the right person to meet with government bureaucrats." 

"But think of how much fun it would be." Buffy told him sarcastically. "They would probably agree to anything you wanted just to get her out of there." 

Her comment achieved its aim, drawing a real chuckle from Giles. It was the first time she'd really managed to break through his impeccably calm exterior since she'd arrived in London. She smiled only slightly at his amusement, worried that he might actually be right about retiring. She obviously needed to spend more time in London or Willow needed to work harder at reminding him of who he really was. Her watcher was not some crusty old bureaucrat. 

"So... oh wise and wonderful watcher 'o mine..." Buffy broke into some private thought he was having. "If we don't know why we are going to this meeting is there anything I should know before we get there?" 

He took his eyes off of traffic for a second to give her a surprised look. "I'll do most of the talking, unless you object?" She shook her head. "As long as you stay calm and don't yell at anyone or break anything while we are there, not matter what they say, we should be fine. We don't want them to take a sudden dislike to the Council." 

"How'd Quentin Travers manage to avoid annoying them? He wasn't exactly a nice person." Buffy wondered out loud. "And why do they need to like us? We don't always get along with anyone in the US military, not even Riley's demon hunters, and they still work with us." 

"Because MI6 is responsible for making it possible for you and Faith, and the other slayers, to travel around the world when you need to without anyone interfering." Giles told her. 

"What do you mean by that?" Buffy looked at him in surprise, shifting in her seat to get a better look at the expression on his face. "Why wasn't I told?" 

"Are you ready to know about all of the red tape the Council has to deal with on a daily basis just so we can send slayers and watchers where they are really needed?" He shook his head. 

"No..." Buffy sat back in her seat. "I just thought the old Council had connections and we were using those." 

"They did. This is one of them. But, as I've already explained, it wasn't free. There were strings attached. The Council was just very good at avoiding paying for the help they received." He gave her another glance. "And one more thing, before we arrive at my flat." 

"Yes?" 

"Like most intelligence agencies around the world, MI6 has a reputation for being quite ruthless when necessary." He frowned. "Don't be mislead by how friendly they may seem. In their case it is a justly deserved reputation. They would think nothing of sacrificing an agent if it were the only way to accomplish a goal." 

"Sounds like the way the Council used to treat slayers." Buffy commented, her face expressing her disgust. 

"It isn't the same thing." Giles corrected her. "Their agents are all volunteers. They know what they are getting into from the start. Don't under-estimate them. They are very dedicated and some of the best at what they do." 

"I won't" She wondered why he assumed she would have a reason to after this meeting but didn't ask. 

They were both quiet for the rest of the trip into the city. After a quick, companionable lunch together in the large flat Giles called home while in London, Buffy showered and changed into something more appropriate for their upcoming meeting with MI6.

* * *

Buffy was slightly confused. They were met at the entrance of an office building but there were no signs that they were in a government building. Signs for something called 'Universal Exports' were scattered every she looked but she didn't see anything that looked like what she imagined an office full of government spies to look like. 

After checking in with the building receptionist, they were shown to an unmarked office by a cheerful, almost perky, secretary. "M will be with you shortly." she said, waving them to seats in the outer office and returning to her seat behind the lone desk. 

"M"? Buffy asked Giles silently. He just shrugged. She wasn't sure she believed his claims that he'd never met their host in person. 

"James!" The secretary addressed an impeccably dressed man who'd casually strolled into the office behind them and who was busy raking his eyes over Buffy in what she felt was an overly inquisitive fashion. She shivered under his intense gaze, finding it hard to keep herself from blushing. 

"Yes, Moneypenny?" He answered her without turning away from his examination of Buffy. 

"M would like to see you. Now." Buffy could sense her combined amusement and exasperation from her tone. 

He winked at her, and after giving Buffy a jaunty smile, casually strolled into the inner office, closing the door behind him. 

Moneypenny shook her head, and looking over at Buffy, remarked cryptically, with some amusement - "He never changes." before turning her attention back to her desk. 

**TBC**


	2. Father, Dear Father

**Disclaimer:** All BtVS characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Fox Television, and others. All "Bond" characters belong to Ian Fleming, and his designated heirs, and probably others. None of these people or organizations have read this nor endorsed it. The story idea might be mine but this is a derivative work.  
**Pairings:** See note in Part 1.  
**AN:** Part 2 of the prologue.

* * *

**Title:** _Father, Dear Father_

While ostensibly looking through the stack of classified folders that Tanner had handed to her earlier prior to her meeting with Bond, M surreptitiously watched her guests, giving them several minutes to make themselves comfortable. Tanner sat to her right, as far from Bond as possible and still participate in the meeting. He'd been MI6's Chief of Staff for far longer than M cared to contemplate and as much as she would have liked to she couldn't exclude him from this meeting. So he sat quietly, ready to provide his input if asked while Bond, the bane of her tenure as Manager in Charge of MI6, sat on the other side of her desk, his attention also on their guests. 

She carefully kept her amusement at the body language exhibited by both men hidden. Like many of the older MI6 staff, neither had agreed with her assessment of the importance of the situation nor with her solution. Dismissal of the hidden world of demons and magic was heavily ingrained into MI6. If she hadn't been exposed to it years before joining the Intelligence Services after college M was sure she would have had the same attitude. Even the ones who'd had some experience with magic, like Bond, tended to turn a blind eye to it. 

She'd proposed the unique assignment to him earlier as part of her solution and had expected him to strenuously object. But either the shock of the surprising revelations she'd made concerning one of his many brief past relationships had distracted him into blindly agreeing to the assignment or he was actually welcoming it for what it was, a chance to step back from field work for a time and not treating it like an attempt to force him into retirement. 

With Bond, it was possible he was thinking something completely different. It was often hard to see how he reached the decisions he made but his ability to quickly reach the correct conclusion in a complex situation made him valuable to MI6 as more than just a 00 agent. She was not going to let him use this situation as an excuse to leave MI6 permanently. She would also have to check with Moneypenny later for any reason why the normally unflappable Bond had turned pale when she'd given him her news, mentioning the two people now sitting in her outer office in passing. 

She just hoped her two guest were as amenable to her plans. Their concerns reached across national boundaries. Any attempt to tie them or their organization to her department in more than a casual manner was bound to be vehemently resisted. And neither of them were known for their tolerance for anyone they saw as wasting their time. If she wasn't careful they could stop her plans before she started. 

"I know you are both wondering why I've asked you here." She began. "It has long been a policy of the Intelligence Services to take a hands off approach when dealing with your organization. It has always suited the purposes of Her Majesty's government to pretend that the things the Council of Watchers deals with, the demons, vampires, and the magic..." She was interrupted by a snort from Bond. She frowned over at him before continuing. "aren't real. The knowledge that it is all real has been known only at the highest levels. It is time we became actively involved in defending our country against this threat." 

"And that has turned out so well in the past." the small blonde commented dryly, causing M to bristle slightly at the implication. "Your people aren't equipped to deal with this. You should leave the demons and non-human evil to the professionals. And..." 

"We appreciate everything you've done to help the Council in the past and that you continue to assist us in the same fashion," M watched with no surprise as Rupert Giles, the titular head of the Council, smoothly interrupted his younger colleague before she could express her displeasure. "but, no offense intended, I would like to think that we know what we are doing and don't need government involvement of the kind I believe you are proposing. We may not have many people left over from the old Council but that doesn't mean we are going to turn over our responsibility to anyone else." 

"I'm sure I don't need to remind you that we are not the American government. We don't plan to wait for a disaster like Sunnydale to happen in this country before we take the threat seriously." M told them firmly. "We are well aware of the dangers involved when dealing with demons and magic." M spared Bond a quick sympathetic glance before continuing. "We've lost several of our best agents over the years when they stumbled into something they weren't prepared to deal with because no one would acknowledge that such things existed." 

"I'm not sure what you expect from us." Mr. Giles told her. "We aren't currently able to do more than support our own people in the field." 

"It has taken some time but we have finally been given the authority to train our people how to effectively deal with demons and similar threats." M said, addressing them both. "I believe it has been a mistake to ignore the long experience of your organization. We've watched others attempt to deal with the demon problem on their own. Most attempted to apply modern science and involved the military. A very inflexible approach. Most have failed, some spectacularly. If we succeed it will be because we are able to work with your organization." 

M noticed that Ms Summers seemed bothered by the idea. "You want our girls to work with your people? I'm not quite sure what your Mr. Bond does but we are not spies or killers. We do what we do because we have to, not for some government agenda." 

"That is not exactly what I have in mind." M denied. "As tempting as the idea might be to some, I have no desire to absorb the Council or your slayers into MI6. Or to even allow them to be used by any other government." 

M noticed their skeptical expressions and shook her head. "Most slayers, by their nature, would not be a good fit for the work we do here. We spend most of our time pin-pointing the exact moment when action might be needed and send people like Commander Bond to deal with it. But direct action is rare enough that we have few reasons to deploy him. Slayers achieve their aims much better when they are allowed to be independent and to think for themselves. You, above all people, Ms. Summers should know that. The whims of governments are often not compatible with the whims of the gods. But that does not mean we can't work together when our goals are the same." 

"You seem to have an unusually high acceptance of what we do." Giles commented curiously. "The Americans needed a disaster before they even began to understand." 

"And you are wondering why." M noted, acknowledging his question with approval. She nodded at Bond, who'd been observing their guests without being drawn into the discussion. "Commander Bond has his own reasons but that is his story to tell if he wishes. I believe you will find this enlightening, Miss Summers." Picking up a slim leather bound book from a corner of her desk, M handed it to Tanner who in turn handed it to the young woman who opened it curiously. 

She read it for a minute, leafing through it carefully, before looking up at M, confusion clearly visible on her face. "This is a potential slayer's private journal. Where did you get it?" 

"It belonged to my grandmother." She noticed how Mr. Giles perked up at her admission. 

"You wouldn't know what happened to her watcher's journal would you?" He asked her, only his eyes indicating his excitement. "Very few of the journals in the Council's archives survived the destruction of the old Council offices. The knowledge that was lost is irreplaceable." 

"My grandfather requested that it be given to the Council when he died. That was over twenty years ago." M told him. "I'm not sure it had much more than historical value." 

"So you expect us to work with you because you had family in the Council? And that makes you better than anyone else?" M wasn't surprised at Summers' angry reaction. 

"Frankly, I'm surprised you are still here." M told her. "It is quite clear from my grandparents' experiences" she gestured at the journal that Giles was now looking through, "that many in the Council at that time did not understand the value of what they had. Many of their rules tended to turn immediate success into long term failure. Working with them would have been nearly impossible for MI6." 

"They were still like that, until the old Council was destroyed and Giles was able to start over last year." Buffy told her. "How do you know we are any different? What makes us worthy of your attention now?" 

"Certain elements in MI6 took it upon themselves to start keeping track of the Council's activities in the late 60's. Although they were only observing, we do have a fairly good idea of who was part of the Council at that time." 

"Why?" Giles asked her, his attention drawn back into the discussion by M's comment. 

"There was some concern in certain knowledgeable quarters that one of our enemies would gain possession of a slayer or control of the Council." M shook her head at the thought of SPECTRE or the Soviets having access to the kind of power the Council represented. "When it was determined that that was unlikely to happen MI6 once again left the Council alone to proceed on its' own path. We didn't have the authority to act until the Council office was destroyed but it took time to decide how we would become involved. And now that you seem to have taked firm control of the Council, we've been given the go-ahead to work with you." 

"That doesn't explain why you are approaching us now." Mr Giles commented causing M to frown. 

"Intelligence services are very paranoid organizations." M attempted to explain. "And my predecessors were more so than most. They believed in keeping a close watch on our special agents, like Commander Bond, or branch heads. This included anyone they became personally involved with." M was sympathetic but pretended to not see how Bond nervously shifted in his chair. He knew, better than most, that having a private personal life was impossible for any of the 00 agents in MI6. "I would like Commander Bond to be our liaison with the Council." 

M watched curiously as two completely different people assessed Bond from across the room. She'd spent enough time with her grandfather to understand how most watchers thought but Mr. Giles hadn't been a typical watcher by anyone's estimation. And Buffy Summers was the only slayer M had ever been in the presence of. The only record they'd been able to find of her in action had been during the American military's Initiative disaster and even her best profilers hadn't been able to discern much from that. The way she carried herself seemed to echo Bond but was much more intense. "Commander Bond has been with MI6 for a long time and has a better understanding than most of what MI6 is capable of. Miss Summers, I believe it would be in everyone's best interest if you were the person he worked with." 

"Why me?" She asked M. "Assuming we even agree to whatever plan you have in mind, if this is just a baby-sitting job while he learns how we fight evil, why can't he spend time with one of our other slayers?" 

"Bond has a deplorable tendency to become involved with women he works with." Tanner spoke up in response to a gesture from M. "Just keeping track of all of the women he has, ah... come into contact would be a full time job. Fortunately, very few of them merit more than a footnote in his file. But some end up on our watch list." 

"I'm not sure I see the connection." Giles asked. 

"Giles?" M noticed that Buffy was giving her watcher an amused look. "If I understand it correctly, someone thinks Commander Bond would be unable to help himself and would become personally involved with whomever we assign to babysit him? Though I'm not sure if I should be offended or not that someone thinks I'm immune to his supposed charms and that his virtue would be safe in my hands." 

M managed to surpress her laughter at the expressions on the faces of the males present in her office at Ms.Summer's comment. "Why you? I'm sure Commander Bond can tell this story better but I believe he's been embarrassed enough for one day." she noted. "Commander Bond travels extensively for MI6. I'm sure there was a good reason for him to be in Paris in May of 1980. Apparently while there, he made the acquaintance of a young art history student. Do you even remember her Bond?" M asked curiously before answering her own question. "I'm sure you don't." 

She shook her head. During all of Bond's years at MI6 some things stayed constant. "When MI6 did a background check on this art student they didn't find anything unusual and she was deemed to not be a security risk. And that would probably have been it. Until six months later when an analyst doing a routine update of this young woman's file revealed an interesting fact. It was originally dismissed as a coincidence but she, and later her daughter, were added to MI6's permanent watch list as a precaution." 

"And the connection this has to the Council?" Giles asked. 

"During a yearly review shortly after I took over the department, one of our older analysts who'd participated in our earlier surveillance of the Council noticed a known member of the Council appeared more than once with the daughter in our quarterly reports from Los Angeles. We were later able to confirm the daughter's connection with Commander Bond when she briefly stayed in a mental institution after an unusual incident at her school. Unfortunately, her connection with the Council was also confirmed and the Council had powerful sponsors at higher levels and it was made clear to us that actively watching her was not recommended." 

"Oh." M watched Buffy's face turn pale as she first looked at Bond and then back at her. M could see that Mr. Giles hadn't drawn the same conclusion yet and wondered if it were possible that he didn't know Miss Summers' past as well as she had expected. 

"Indeed." M acknowledged. "If you are wondering if Bond was ever going to be told? No." 

"Why?" Buffy asked hoarsely. "What reason could there be to keep something like that from him?" 

M looked at Bond, giving him a chance to finally say something. She wasn't disappointed though she thought his answer left much to be desired. 

"Some see family as a dangerous distraction. It gets in the way of the job." He looked at Buffy with an unreadable expression. "A family makes you vulnerable. Too many agents have buried family members they weren't able to protect." 

"And if you had known?" She asked him intensely. Watching her blank facial expression, M wondered what was really going through her mind. 

"He would have quit MI6." M took pity on Bond and answered for him. "And that couldn't be allowed to happen." The room was silent for several minutes while the others absorbed her answer. 

"I need to go." Buffy announced, getting shakily to her feet. "I have a plane to catch." She turned back to Giles and addressed him before heading towards the door. "Why don't you finish here and tell me what you've decided later. You know where I'll be." 

"Bond, why don't you take Ms. Summers to the airport?" M commanded. "Mr. Giles and I can continue our discussion without your presence." She shook her head when he seemed about to protest. "I believe you had plans for the afternoon already. We'll let you know what we decide." 

Bond nodded and followed Buffy out of M's office, shaking his head at Moneypenny to stop her from saying anything to the obviously upset young woman glaring at the door that refused to open as she handed him a slim leather briefcase. "Moneypenny, if you could be so kind as to open the door for us?" 

**TBC**


	3. Roman Holiday

**Disclaimer:** All BtVS characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Fox Television, and others. All "Bond" characters belong to Ian Fleming, and his designated heirs, and probably others. None of these people or organizations have read this nor endorsed it. The story idea might be mine but this is a derivative work.  
**Pairings:** See Part 1 of the Prologue (No matter what you **think** is going to happen - it isn't :). Would I lie to you? Only Bond **ever** _gets the girl_ in a Bond flick/story. And she usually dies at the end. We wouldn't want to tempt Fate here, now would we?)  
**AN1:** Part 3 of the prologue. 1 to go. Then the fun starts.  
**AN2:** Feedback always appreciated. There were a number of inciteful and interesting comments for the previous chapters. Much to think about.  
**AN3:** 23-Mar-2005 The first conversation between Buffy and Faith was modified to make what they discuss less ambiguous.

* * *

**Title:** _Roman Holiday_

Out of the corner of his eye, Bond watched her sitting, unnaturally quiet, in his car, staring out at the city as they passed through it. She hadn't said anything to him after giving him directions to the flat where she'd left her things. Not even the awed reaction Q's exotic car of the month tended to provoke in most of his female acquaintances. He had no idea how to begin talking to her. In the years since Tracy's death his ability to make small talk with his few remaining female relatives had atrophied, and saying anything to a daughter he'd never known about was completely outside of his experience. 

M had warned him, none to subtly, that he would have to be very careful with Buffy. He knew M's sympathy for him only went so far. She was more concerned with any effects his possible actions might have on her plans for any relationship between MI6 and the Council of Watchers than how he felt about the sudden complication in his personal life. But he'd taken her words to heart. He'd learned over the years that M's insight into what motivated people in difficult situations was often as perceptive as his own. It was a trait he found disturbing in someone who'd never been a field agent like the previous occupants of her office. 

Very few of the men in his daughter's life had ever treated her well, in M's studied opinion. With the exception of several unusual incidents, Her past was shrouded in the mystery that seemed to cloud any attempts to investigate anyone directly associated with the Council. 

From the little that MI6 had been able to dig up it was clear that even the most constant male presence in her life, her Council appointed mentor, had abandoned her at least once over the years. And now he, the earliest, most critical of those to abandon her was expected to somehow work with her while dealing with these issues. That he'd never known she existed, and that others had conspired to keep him in ignorance didn't, in his old fashioned opinion, excuse his behavior. 

Glancing over at her as they sat in the interminable traffic, he couldn't fathom how to even begin. He'd been very young when he'd run away and joined the Navy. Since then he'd only had three kinds of relationships with women since joining MI6 years before - The working relationship he had with M and Moneypenny, two very different women; the women he charmed during the course of an assignment who were often adversaries or the pawns of adversaries, which, while often resulting in a mutually enjoyable evening did not lead to anything long term; and the women he met while trying to forget the others. Women who had no connection with his past or job and who had no interest beyond spending the night, before moving on with their lives. Her mother must have been one of those, her features blurring into one of many in his past. None of the women in his past or present gave him any idea how to approach the subject with her. 

Nearing the flat, Bond recorded the location in the car's navigation system, simultaneously logging the address into MI6's agent tracking system. He often found the intrusion of MI6 in even the most mundane parts of his life annoying but given the number of times it had saved him when an assignment had fallen apart, he knew it had its' place. And, in Intelligence all data had value to someone, even if it was only how long it took to travel from one part of London to another. His simple action would make some number cruncher in MI6 happy. There were times when he wondered where he'd lost the sense of humour that caused the younger 00's to claim credit for raising moral every time they pushed a button on some Q devised tracking device. 

"I'll wait here for you." He told her after pulling up in front of the flat. She just nodded before seeming to just flow out of the car and walking up the sidewalk to the door with a grace that few women in his experience could come close to emulating.

* * *

It had been close, but even as stressful as the day had been so far, Buffy had been able to keep herself together until she was back in Giles' flat and packing her travel bag. She hadn't originally planned to go back to Rome right after the meeting but she felt an urgent need to put some distance between herself and her new family member. Having him drive her to the airport only increased her desire to be back in Rome with her sister, even if it meant potentially dealing with Faith and her issues. 

She gave herself a good ten minutes to cry after she'd packed. She had the feeling that if she took any longer that 'he', this man that someone had decided was now her father, would show up in Giles' flat to check on her. The crying didn't make her feel much better but it had given her a little more control over her emotions. When she was back home in the apartment in Rome she shared with her sister, and she'd shipped Faith back to Giles, then she could really fall apart. With any luck, she could figure out what to tell her sister about the sudden twist their lives had suddenly taken on the plane back to Rome. 

Stuffing the few possessions that had escaped her earlier efforts into her bag, and taking one last look around, Buffy frowned, looking for the note she'd left for Giles. She sighed with relief when she saw it taped to his fridge where he wouldn't miss it. And with slightly renewed enthusiasm, she stepped out of the flat and looked towards the car. She wasn't happy with this new round of 'Buffy bashing' that Fate seemed so intent on but she couldn't really blame him for it. She just hoped that there was something more to this man than the broody, silent type she'd seen so far. There were already too many men in her past with those not so endearing traits. There must have been something about him that had attracted her mother to him so long ago. 

She could easily tell that he wasn't unaware of his surroundings. She'd sensed a slight change in his posture the moment she'd stepped away from the door. Even from a distance his alertness was clearly visible to her, though she expected only someone like a slayer would have noticed. Even knowing nothing about who or what he was, she would have sensed his presence in a crowd. Now that she was more in control of her emotions she could feel something about him that shouted predator to her trained senses. 

He continued to read as she approached, stopping only when her free hand touched the car door. Looking at her across the car very briefly, he put away whatever he'd been looking at in the small briefcase she'd seen him put in the car earlier. Before she could say anything he'd jumped out of the car, with a lot more energy than she expected in someone old enough to be her father. 

"Let me get that." He requested firmly. "There's room in the boot." 

She reluctantly relinquished it to him and watched, puzzled, as he put it in the small car's trunk. Her confusion didn't abate when he then held the car door open for her and gestured for her to get in.

* * *

He didn't explained why they'd stopped at a small, secluded cemetery on the way to the airport. He just handed her a thick envelope from his briefcase and told her to wait. After a boring wait that seemed to go on forever but her watch claimed was only five minutes, she gave in to curiosity and opened it. It seemed to contain a large number of photos, most of them of her with her mother, before her parent's divorce. She noticed a large gap starting around the time they'd moved to Sunnydale, with the pictures resuming in LA after the collapse of Sunnydale when they'd destroyed the Hellmouth. 

She wondered if he would let her keep them. She'd lost all of her pictures of her mother. And she wondered what her sister would think about them. She was missing from all of the pictures with their mother and the ones she was in were only with Buffy. She snorted in amusement and looked at them again. Some MI6 photographer had been fascinated by Faith. There were more photos of her with Faith than of her with Dawn. She wasn't sure which of them would be offended the most. Dawn because there were so few and none of them with their mother; or Faith because someone had caught her at her most playful, when she wasn't acting tough. 

Sitting there with nothing to do except look through the pictures, boredom set in quickly. She didn't think her new father would appreciate it if she started rummaging through his car. Glancing out at the darkening sky, she wondered what was taking him so long. Climbing out of his small car, out onto a stone path, she gazed around. Taking a deep breath, she smiled in welcome surprise. It was one of those rare cemeteries; one that didn't smell of fresh dirt and death. It had probably been twenty years since anyone had been buried in it. Enjoying the smell of fresh cut grass, she headed down the freshly groomed path towards the center of the cemetery. 

It didn't take long to find him in the small cemetery. He stood, in something she vaguely recognized as parade rest, staring at a small marble headstone. Walking up next to him, she took note of the name and dates, wondering who it was. Some relative she would need to know about? An aunt? She wasn't sure what compelled her to break the peaceful silence. "I think death is harder on the living. In Heaven everything is peaceful. When you're there you just know that all of your friends, your family, are going to be okay. You can finally rest." She shook off the feeling such thought tended to bring out, even years later. "Who is this?"

* * *

Bond looked at her for a minute, eyebrow raised, before turning back to the headstone and answering her innocent question. There had been an unusual depth of sadness in her comments when she'd spoken about Heaven. He couldn't imagine what had put it in her voice or why it seemed she spoke with such authority, but it resonated with his own feelings whenever he visited Tracy's grave. 

"She was my wife." 

"Oh." 

He could tell she was curious and was surprised at the restraint of her response. 

"Someday you'll have to explain the whole age thing. If she was your wife the math doesn't work." 

"Someday." He acknowledged. She was probably one of the few people he'd met with any chance of understanding what had happened to him but he wasn't ready to share that with her yet. Not even MI6 knew the whole truth. 

"This is a peaceful place." She commented on their walk back to his car. "The next time I die I would like to be buried somewhere like this. Not that it'll happen." 

He filed her strange comment away in his head for later investigation. "The family plot is up north." He opened the door for her before continuing. "It's been a long time since it was used. My parents are buried in the mountains they died climbing."

* * *

With Bond's assistance, she'd managed to exchange her tickets for an earlier flight. They struggled to find anything to talk about while eating an early dinner in an airport restaurant. Just from the way he'd charmed the waitress, and the ticket clerk earlier, Buffy could tell he wasn't used to being at such a loss when talking with women and, taking pity on him, threw him something to work with. 

"We'll be back in London after Christmas." She told him. "I'm sure Giles and your boss will make plans for the two of us to get together before then, but maybe you can meet my sister then. She and I really don't need another father figure but she should meet you anyway." 

"Your sister?" She couldn't tell what he was think behind his blank expression, so she decided to make it clear the part her sister played in her life. 

"Summers women stick together." she told him bluntly. "We're a package deal. Both of us or neither." 

At his surprised look, she shook her head. "You don't know anything about her? Do you?" Pulling the envelope from her bag, she looked through the photographs he'd handed her earlier. Pulling out one of her sister, standing next to her in an outfit that told her it had been taken some time during their first visit to the Coliseum, Buffy handed it to him. "She's the tall brunette. I'm sure you can tell which one is me." 

He took the photograph. "She looks like my mother." He looked over at Buffy, an odd expression on his face, before returning the photo. 

"Not a real surprise." She told him with a shrug. "But I think an explanation for that episode in the 'Tale of Buffy' can wait with all of the rest until after Christmas. But only if she agrees to it." To discourage any real questions, she handed him another photograph, this time one of the ones with Faith. "This person, on the other hand, may not be my sister but if you run into her I still expect you to keep your hands to yourself." "No matter what she says, she's off-limits." She told him in her firmest voice. "She has enough issues with me without you getting in the middle."

* * *

Her flight touched down in Rome in late evening, along with what felt to Buffy like half the other planes in Europe. She'd spent the entire flight lightly napping in an attempt to get rid of some of the day's stress. Forcing her way through the crowded airport, Buffy felt herself wishing for some of Faith's seemingly limitless energy. It wasn't age she felt catching up to her, just the day's events. 

While a slayer didn't stay at her peak forever, her resurrection and the burst of energy that she'd been hit with by Willow's slayer activation spell had affected the accuracy of the Council's ancient tools for measuring slayer strength, making it almost impossible for anyone to guess when she should retire from active slaying. 

From studying Faith, Willow had decided that by the time Faith was thirty five they would both have worn out their bodies ability to handle the constant pressure slaying put on them. She'd decided that the ancient magic that made them slayers could only compensate for the physical strain they were under for only so long. Buffy was certain that Faith had no intention of ever stopping. It was too much a part of her nature. Even though she knew her friends would think she was being selfish, Buffy had no plans to allow her to go out in some apocalyptic, spectacular fashion, leaving her alone as the oldest slayer. If Willow or Giles ever managed to force her into a desk job, Faith was joining her in retiring from field work. Whether she wanted to or not. And not that she planned to tell her any time soon. 

She was glad that no one was at the airport to meet her. She needed to sleep on some things before she talked with Dawn, and possibly Faith. She wasn't sure why the revelation that Hank Summers wasn't really her father had thrown her so off balance. It wasn't as if she'd spent very much time with him over the last ten years. But she wasn't ready just yet to jump up and down, throw a party or celebrate in any way. Becoming attached to someone she didn't know just because of an accidental relationship wasn't something she was prepared to do. No one had bothered to tell her what this new person in her life really did for MI6 but she was fairly sure that it wasn't a desk job. For all she knew he did something dangerous and wouldn't even be alive at Christmas to meet Dawn. 

Flagging down a cab, Buffy was so deep in thought that she barely noticed that the driver didn't give her a second look once she was in the cab. She was looking forward to prolonged tub time, if she could get both Faith and her sister out of the apartment at the same time. She'd changed her mind about immediately chasing Faith back to Giles but that didn't mean she needed to see her constantly. 

By the time they reached the apartment that she shared with her sister, Buffy could feel her hunting impulses start to reassert themselves after the long day as her slayer enhanced metabolism worked overtime. This was one of the few times she regretted living in a city with no real vampire problem. She wasn't in the mood to burn off her frustration at a club, her favorite gym would be closed at this time of night, and she'd be lucky to find anything remotely evil to vent her frustrations on. 

Walking quietly up the steps and into the apartment, Buffy dropped her bag off in her room and wandered down the small hallway to check on her sister, finding her sound asleep. Faith didn't seem to be anywhere but she assumed that she'd managed to find something to occupy herself with for the evening. Stalking across the room to her bed, Buffy quickly stripped off her travel stained clothes and collapse in an unmoving heap on her bed, laying there for several minutes before finding the energy to cover herself with a flimsy blanket that was more symbolic than anything. Before sleep claimed her, she vaguely noticed the almost familiar scent of another woman on her pillow.

* * *

The smell of fresh coffee, brewed American style instead of the espresso that Dawn insisted was required of anyone living in Rome, brought Buffy out of a deep, dreamless sleep. Pulling her head out from under her pillow Buffy gave the dark haired slaying sitting on the end of her bed an incredulous look before pulling the pillow back over her face in an attempt to block out the harsh morning light. 

"Go away!" she growled. 

"Can't B. You have a package and Giles is expecting a call from you this morning." Faith threw back with an evil smirk. 

Scrambling to sit up and remain covered by her thin blanket at the same time, Buffy greedily snatched the steaming mug from Faith's hand, eliciting an amused snort from the other woman. "Who is it from?" She asked after several tongue burning sips. 

"Some outfit called 'Universal Exports'" Faith told her. 

"Oh." Buffy took another sip and put the mug on her bedside table before crawling back under her pillow. 

"Don't you want to open it?" Faith's muffled voice reached her under the pillow. 

"No!" Buffy mumbled, feeling childish and pouting into her pillow. "Don't wanna!" 

"Why not?" Buffy could feel Faith's movements on the bed. 

"Do you have any idea who that is?" Buffy asked, her voice still muffled by her pillow. 

"Not unless you tell me." Faith told her. "What do you think it is, B?" 

"No idea what it is, F." Buffy answered grumpily. "But that name was everywhere when Giles and I went to that secret meeting. I'm sure they are connected." She took the pillow off of her face. "Giles did tell you and Dawn about that didn't he?" 

"No..." Faith admitted. "He just said he needed you in London and that Dawn and I couldn't tell anyone where you were. He wouldn't tell me anything else." She held the envelope out to Buffy; "If you want me to I can open it for you. Dawn saw it show up so you might want to open it now, before she gets home, if there is anything she shouldn't see in it. She was kinda curious about it." 

Buffy covered her face back up with her pillow and groaned. "Can't we just send it back? And pretend we never got it?" 

"It's your package, Buffy" Faith told her. From the sound of her voice Buffy could tell she was grinning. "Do whatever you want." 

"Does it say who it's really from?" 

From her answer, Buffy assumed Faith had turned the envelope over and examined it. "It says it's from a Bond somebody." 

"Damn." Buffy muttered before sitting back up. "Gimme!" 

"Please!" Faith insisted with that mischievous twinkle in her eyes that tended to confuse Buffy. 

"Please." Buffy echoed her. 

It was a slim package. Other than the originating address and her name on it there was nothing anywhere on it to indicate what was in it. She impatiently tore it open, causing a brown envelope, identical to the one containing the pictures the previous day, and a smaller letter sized envelope with her name on it, to fall between them onto the bed. Ignoring the smaller envelope for now, she opened the larger one and dumped it out in the middle of her bed. 

"Pictures?" Faith looked at her in surprise 

Quickly glancing through them, there was one Buffy didn't recognize. It was a black and white photo of a young couple dressed in old fashioned clothes. The woman bore an uncanny resemblance to her sister and the man could almost be a younger version of her new father. Setting it to the side she went through the rest a little slower. They were the same ones she'd seen the day before. She handed them to Faith. 

Faith looked at them curiously. "Are you in all of these?" At Buffy's nod she looked at them again from the beginning. "You were a cute kid." 

Buffy blushed, not used to such sincere comments from the hardened slayer. "Yeah." 

"So where did these come from?" Faith frowned in thought. "Didn't you lose all the pictures you had of your mom in Sunnydale?" 

"Yes." She sighed. "Do you mind if I only tell you part of the story for now? I think Dawn should be told some things first. And you can't talk to anyone about this. Other than Dawn and Giles anyway." 

"Sure thing." Faith nodded in agreement. 

"How long can you stay?" Buffy asked her. 

"In Rome? Giles wants me back in London next week. I'm free until then." 

"Good..." She looked at Faith speculatively. "Can you stay here? With us I mean. I don't think some of the things I need to tell Dawn are going to go over too well. I'm sure she's going to want someone who isn't me to talk to. Giles is in London, and Willow isn't supposed to know yet." 

"Sure. However long you need me around." She lay down on the bed facing Buffy. "So what's the deal with the pictures?" 

"We had a meeting with some British government spies." 

"Cool!" Faith blurted out, grinning at Buffy with excitement. "Did you get to see any spy toys? I bet they have a bunch of things we could use." 

"No 'Andrew'." Faith glared at her and she stuck her tongue out at her before continuing. "No spy toys. Just your basic boring, stuffy meeting." She rubbed her back, trying to get more of the lingering, travel induced stiffness out of it. "The old Council owed them and they wanted to collect." 

"Figures." Faith groused. "Travers sticks us with the bill even when he's dead." 

"That was Giles' thought also." Buffy smiled at her. "Are you spending too much time around him? Maybe you should come to Rome more often to get away from all that watcherness." She laughed at Faith's disturbed expression. "Anyway... they want us to teach them everything we can about demons. I guess something's been snacking on too many of their secret agents. I'm not sure of the exact details. Giles is going to work it out with them and let me know." 

"And the pictures?" 

"Mom met one of their spies a few years ago. In Paris. And someone decided they needed to keep an eye on her afterward." Buffy frowned in thought for a moment. "I guess they were afraid she would try to blackmail him." 

"And they're still taking pictures of you?" Faith shook her head and laughed. "I knew your mom was special. This spy guy didn't just buy her a drink, did he? Or should you be calling him '_Pops_'?" 

"You know, I really don't want to talk about my mother and sex." Buffy objected, relieved that Faith didn't need everything spelled out. She was worried enough about Dawn's reaction without having to explain the details to Faith. 

"Did you get to meet him?" She asked Buffy, looking at her curiously. 

Buffy nodded, and handed her the last photo. "He looks sort of like that, except a little older." 

"He must be really old now." Faith mused. 

"He is and he isn't." Noticing Faith's confused expression she explained as best she could. "He must be in his 70's but he looks younger than Giles." At Faith's startled look, she answered her unasked question with the only answer she had. "He hasn't explained yet." 

Faith looked intently at the picture and, looking back up at Buffy, laughed. "Huh. Figures. Even your father isn't going to be exactly normal." She looked back at the photo. "Not bad for an old English guy. When do I get to meet him?" The smile on Faith's face was what Buffy always thought of as her most predatory. 

"Hands off Faith!" Buffy shivered. "That's just ewe..." 

Faith laughed at her expression. "Who's this next to him?" 

"That's a picture of his mother and father." Buffy corrected. "You'll probably meet him in December when Dawn and I head back to London for Christmas. Notice the resemblance to someone you know?" 

"Why does she look like Dawn? Only taller?" Faith looked up at Buffy for a moment before looking back at the picture, obviously trying to figure it out. 

"Well, that confused him also." She chuckled at the memory. "Dawn will have to explain it to you. I haven't figured out what, if anything we're going to tell him about it." 

"Why?" 

"I promised her. It's her secret, not mine." She gazed thoughtfully at the brunette. "Did anyone ever really explain why I died that time in Sunnydale?" 

"You mean the 'swan dive' into a portal?" Faith shook her head. "No. Other than you did it to save Dawn from some crazy goddess. The whole thing never made much sense." 

"That's because you missed Dawn's part of the story. If you can get her to tell you it'll make more sense than it probably does now. And it'll explain the whole picture thing." 

Looking forlornly at the now empty coffee mug, Buffy rolled off of her bed and padded over to the small closet to find something to wear. She blushed and grabbed her robe from its hook on her bedroom door when she realized she'd walked half naked across the room, right in front of Faith, without even thinking about it. At Faith's smirk she raised an eyebrow as if in challenge but Faith didn't say anything. Buffy wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. "Interested in an early lunch?" 

"Sure." 

"Okay. I think I need to take a shower and give Giles a call. Then we can go." And she headed towards the bathroom, leaving Faith still staring at the pictures on her bed, the smaller envelope forgotten.

* * *

After a quick lunch at Buffy's favorite cafe, the two slayers spent the early afternoon wandering aimlessly around Rome, Faith following Buffy's lead. Deep in thought, she would occasionally answer a question from Faith but they spent most of the time in a companionable silence. 

They'd been walking for several hours when Buffy realized that Faith was being extremely patient with their lack of destination. Looking around the small square they were crossing, she spied a small stone bench shaded from the afternoon sun. Steering Faith towards it, she collapsed as gracefully as she could manage on one end and motioned Faith towards the other. 

"You must be very bored." She told her. 

"No..." Faith answered, laughing at Buffy's raised eyebrow. "Really. Having a chance to relax like this is great. Sure, I couldn't take doing it every day but it's a lot better than hanging out waiting for someone like I did yesterday." She winked at Buffy. "And the company helps, of course." 

"Unless you want to spend your days wandering around ancient monuments, churches, and musty libraries, there really isn't much for a slayer to do in Rome." Buffy shrugged. "The watcher types love it because they can dig around in musty old books without worrying about vampires and demons. The Vatican did something to protect the whole city from non-human evil a few centuries ago. The occasional demon still wanders through but it's sort of like an anti-Hellmouth." 

"I was wondering why the night life here was so quiet." Faith admitted. "It's not the only city like this, is it?" 

"Nope. Giles says there are a couple others; one in China, Jerusalem, and some place in Ireland." She frowned in thought. "Rome does have other issues but it is really the only one he considers safe enough for slayer vacations though." 

"What slayer has time for a vacation?" Faith scoffed. "Even with dozens of us now there's plenty of evil to go around to keep us all busy. I'm not sure how you managed to get Giles to leave you alone here... you can't spend all day just keeping an eye on Dawn." 

"Before she started her internship, we spent the time wandering around, exploring Italy and Greece. Finding and getting to know the local slayers. Making sure they are being taken care of. That kind of thing. We don't have enough watchers to go around. Especially in this part of the world." 

"And now?" Faith asked curiously. 

"We still do things together on weekends if we can, and when she has the day off. But I'm mostly doing some research for Giles. Someone found a couple prophecies..." 

"Nothing new there, B." Faith laughed. "Can't one of the research tweeds running around the London or Cleveland offices do that kind of thing?" 

"I wish..." Buffy sighed. "But that isn't really what I'm doing. Giles thinks we need a better slayer support structure for the entire Mediterranean than the old Council version. One that works with all of the different cultures. So I've been learning as much as I can about the area and the kinds of people a slayer has to work with. If I come up with a workable plan we'll start putting it together next spring." 

"Okay, the old Council made a mess of things but why a special plan for here?" Faith asked. 

Buffy looked at her for a moment before answering, giving her question the consideration it deserved. Faith wasn't unintelligent by anyone's standards and tended to go straight to the heart of an issue. Buffy knew she couldn't have survived her childhood and Sunnydale otherwise. "It's an experiment. We're starting with a blank slate here. We finally have a chance to do things right. Before the new Council has a chance to turn into the old one. And hopefully everything will be in place for those prophecies in a few years when they are supposed to happen. If it works out we'll try it in other places like Africa and the Middle East." 

"That's kind of ambitious." Faith gave her an amazed look. "But better you than me. And how does this whole secret agent father thing affect that?" 

"I don't know." Buffy told her honestly. "We've only known about it since yesterday. We'll see after Giles has a chance to absorb the idea into that watcher brain of his. He's meeting with them again next week to discuss possibilities. Fortunately, he doesn't need me there for that one. And don't get too cocky. You might be the person running whatever we end up with." 

She smirked at the horrified look Faith gave her. 

"No way! I'm a slayer, not a leader." Faith protested. 

"You can't fool me." Buffy told her. "I've seen you working with the newbies. You are at least as good as I am. And Giles knows it. In fact, you are probably a lot better at it." 

"No..." Faith protested again. 

"Anyway, we can talk about that if Giles ever actually retires." Buffy nodded at Faith's surprise. "You know he can't keep doing it forever. He's already planning for it." Buffy stood up, stretching her arms above her head. "If you're interested I have a training room at a local gym permanently reserved for a couple hours every afternoon. Want to go burn off some of that energy? You might even meet a local slayer or two and their watchers." 

"Are they cute?" Faith asked with a smirk. 

"Which ones?" Buffy asked. "Watchers or slayers?" 

"Does it matter?" Faith winked at her. "Have you ever met a slayer who wasn't a hot chick?" 

"Faith!" Buffy swatted her companion. Chewing on her lower lip and frowning, Buffy pretended to think about it before answering. "I guess not." 

"I take that as a yes." Faith grinned, not taking the bait, before adding, "But if they aren't, you owe me dinner." 

Getting quickly to her feet and pulling Faith up with her, Buffy just shook her head. "Come on... we can pick up something for dinner on the way home afterward. I still need to talk with Dawn."

* * *

**TBC** in "_If this is Rome, it must be Tuesday._"   



	4. If this is Rome, it must be Tuesday

**Disclaimer:** All BtVS characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Fox Television, and others. All "Bond" characters belong to Ian Fleming, and his designated heirs, and probably others. None of these people or organizations have read this nor endorsed it. The story idea might be mine but this is a derivative work.  
**Pairings:** See note in first part (And 3rd part).  
**Rating:** See first part.  
**Spoilers:** Seasons 1-7 of BtVS. All of the Bond movies and Ian Fleming books.  
**AN-1:** Final Part (4) of the Prologue.  
**AN-2:** **Advanced Warning:** The next few parts will take me a while. It's going to be action heavy and that kind of thing takes me longer to write.  
**AN-3:** Feedback always welcome/desired.  
**AN-4:** The 1st conversation between Faith and Buffy was slightly modified to clarify who knew what and when.

* * *

**  
Title:** _If this is Rome...it must be Tuesday_

Quietly closing the apartment door, and trying not to attract the attention of her sister, who was hopefully still sleeping after returning from her trip, Dawn breathed a sigh of relief. She'd left the library earlier than she normally did, hoping to have a chance to spend a little more time with Faith before she had to head back to London. Assuming, contrary to Dawn's expectations, she hadn't been sent packing by Buffy already. For two people whom Dawn thought obviously had so much in common and who should naturally just get along, their ability to annoy each other, often to the point of violence, continued to amaze her.

Dropping her book-bag just inside the hall closet, Dawn noticed that Faith's favorite leather jacket was still there, just barely hanging from the coat hook she'd thrown it on the day before when she'd arrived and dragged a protesting Buffy off to the airport, putting her on a plane to London for some super secret Council activity Giles had refused to discuss and that he had insisted they not tell anyone else, not even Willow, about. She grinned, wiping her forehead in exaggerated relief that Buffy had behaved reasonably for once and not chased her self-proclaimed nemesis away when she'd gotten back to Rome.

Passing the bathroom door on the way to her room, planning to change into something more comfortable, Dawn heard several voices talking over the noisy shower. She stopped to listen, but couldn't understand what they were saying through the thick wooden door. Curious, and determined to exercise her sisterly right to be nosy, she quietly opened the door just a crack; wide enough to see in but not wide enough to be seen herself. Peering into the steam filled room, she could just barely make out two people, someone, who could only be Faith, in the shower and the other, obviously her sister, standing in front of the large mirror, with her back to the door. She couldn't tell what they were talking about, the few words she could pick out over the noise of the shower not making any sense.

Her eyes wide in surprise, Dawn gently shut the bathroom door and continued to her room to change, hoping they hadn't noticed her. Something must have happened since she'd left for work to get them together like that. If she watched them carefully maybe she could figure it out. She knew that Giles and Willow had been working on the two older slayers for months, trying to get them to see past their violent tendencies towards one another, but she hadn't realised they had gotten far enough along to be sharing the bathroom without bloodshed being involved.

Dismissing with a violent shudder the stray, disturbing thought that maybe they were even closer than she'd thought could ever be possible, Dawn wandered back out into the kitchen looking for something to eat, noticing as she passed that the bathroom door was still closed, but no longer hearing the shower running. Grabbing a ripe pear off of the counter and taking a small bite, her attention was caught by a brown envelope that had been placed in the middle of the kitchen table. It seemed to call to her, as if placed there just for her.

Sitting down at the table in a chair facing the window, Dawn reached out for the envelope, and grabbing it opened it, dumping out its contents on the table. To her surprise it contained several dozen pictures of her sister with several other people, including herself, their mother, and Faith. Frowning, she noticed that Buffy seemed very young in some of them and that there were none with herself and their mother.

Staring at the pictures spread out in front of her, Dawn wasn't quite sure what to make of them, especially her obvious absence from so many. Just as she was about to take another bite of her pear, a hand gently touched her shoulder, and she almost jumped out of her skin in shock.

"Sorry!" she heard her sister apologize. Twisting around in her chair, Dawn was surprised to see Buffy already fully dressed. "Did you need anything earlier?" Buffy asked.

"No. I heard voices and was curious. I didn't know that you and Faith were in there... together." Dawn mumbled, feeling slightly guilty at being caught looking at the pictures but not above using any opportunity to distract her sister from what she was doing and fishing for information at the same time. She thought of it as future watcher training.

"Oh! Faith was just taking a shower. We'd just got back from the gym and had things to talk about."

"Okay... if you say so." Dawn winked at her sister, shrugging mentally at her confused look. Noticing that Buffy had apparently not picked up on the innuendo in her comment, Dawn decided not pursue the idea for now. She figured there would be plenty of time to determine what, if anything, was really going on between her sister and Faith later. "What did you want to do for dinner? We don't have enough here to feed two hungry slayers."

"Not a problem." Her sister told her breezily. "Faith and I stopped at that place you like on our way back from the gym and ordered several large pizzas. They should be here in a few minutes."

Dawn watched her sister for a few minutes as she aimlessly puttered around the kitchen, wondering why she hadn't said anything about the pictures she must have seen her looking at.

"Buffy?" When no response was immediately forthcoming, she decided to take a more direct approach. Holding up the pictures she asked "Where did these come from? I mean, who sent them?"

"They came in that envelope that was delivered this morning." Buffy told her. "If you can wait, I would rather explain the where and the who after we eat."

* * *

Dawn watched, amused, as her sister and Faith ate like they were afraid the food would escape before it reached their mouths. She'd spent enough time around slayers to not be too surprised but just thinking about how much the two small women were eating was making her stomach hurt in sympathy. "Guys! Wanna slow down? There's plenty left." She pointed out the unopened third box. "You ordered enough for three slayers who just spent the night killing things, not two who just got back from the gym." 

Faith grinned and belched, and Buffy pounded her on the back. "Sorry." they both muttered, though Dawn wasn't sure who they were apologizing to or why.

"So... what's the deal with the pictures?" Dawn asked, reaching behind her to grab them from the counter they'd ended up on when the food had arrived. She gave her nervous sister a perceptive look. "Why are they bothering you so much?" When she didn't answer immediately, Dawn looked over at Faith but she just shrugged. Her continued presence hadn't been explained either but Dawn had no desire to tempt fate by asking about it. Usually, Buffy couldn't wait to get rid of Faith whenever she visited them. In Dawn's mind, her sister's unusual behavior towards Faith seemed even odder than the unexplained pictures.

"Do you remember Mom talking about that summer she spent in Paris?" Buffy asked, after a long silence. "Before she married Dad?"

"Yes." Until she'd spent time in a strange foreign city herself, Dawn had thought her mother's tales of her adventures that summer in Paris were romantic and exciting. Now she just wished she'd been that innocent herself when she first saw Rome. She was pretty sure that seeing the city after so much horror had tainted the experience for her.

"Well... she didn't exactly tell us everything about Paris." Buffy mumbled. "She didn't spend the entire time exploring museums and going out with friends."

Dawn wondered why Buffy seemed so nervous, and why she was getting sympathetic looks from the usually emotionally oblivious Faith. If she didn't know better she would think her sister, the pseudo-prude, was trying to think of a way to talk about their mother's sex life without really saying anything. All the usual signs of sisterly avoidance were there. And with that, Dawn thought she'd figured it out. Grinning to herself, she decided to see if she could make her sister squirm.

"Buffy! Mom was an adult at the time. She was allowed to have sex. It was her life. It's not like she'd eaten possessed candy." Knowing how much she liked to poke fun at Buffy's attitudes towards even talking about sex, Dawn wondered why Faith was keeping her opinions to herself at this point.

"It isn't that." Buffy shook her head in denial. "We're all grownups here, even Faith." She patted Faith's knee and Dawn winced at the annoyed look Faith was giving her sister at the patronizing gesture. So much for their apparent friendliness. It seemed to be over already.

"Then what's the problem?" She asked.

"That trip to London yesterday? You know... the one you absolutely can't tell Willow, Xander, or anyone else about until Giles okays it?" Buffy looked at both of them and continued when they both nodded in agreement. "I thought I was going to a meeting to stomp all over some secret government plan to steal some of our newbie slayers for their evil plans. Imagine my surprise when those pictures were shoved in my face almost as soon as we'd gotten there!"

"Why would they take all of these pictures of you? I can see why they might want pictures of Mom, or even Faith and I. We're the good looking ones around here." Dawn giggled at Buffy's frown. She knew she was not actually a vain person, but because Buffy tended to over react to comments about her looks, she couldn't resist taking a poke at her when given an opportunity like this. "And what do the pictures have to do with Mom in Paris?"

"They thought someone might use Mom to blackmail one of their agents." Buffy told her.

"What? Did she sleep with one of them and they thought you were his daughter?" Dawn kidded, wondering why her sister seemed to turn white at her comment.

"Yes. How'd you guess?" Buffy asked faintly. It wasn't the answer Dawn had expected but by now she was numb to the random twists and turns her sister's life seemed to take, so she took it in stride and tried to make her sister laugh about it.

"You know that kind of thing only happens in soaps or really bad Bollywood movies. I think you should ask for a second opinion." Dawn told her with a laugh. "Though it would certainly explain some things, like your tendency to be bossy like Giles. It's the tweed showing through."

"They have proof." Buffy insisted, looking upset at Dawn's less than serious reaction.

Looking back and forth between Faith and Buffy, Dawn couldn't resist one last comment. "Does that make me only your half sister? Knowing that could have saved me a lot of problems in high school. Though I'm not sure it's fair that you aren't related to Hank Summers any more and I still am." She put a fake pout on her face and waited for Buffy to correct her since they both knew, that thanks to some now dead monks, things wouldn't quite work out that way. It wasn't that simple.

"You know that isn't how it is." Buffy admonished her before getting up from the table. Dawn watched her for a few minutes as she nervously started cleaning up the remains of their dinner. She noticed that Faith seemed content just to observe the two of them and wondered what Buffy had told her.

"I'm assuming you actually met him? What's his name?" Dawn asked finally, leaning forward in anticipation.

"His name?" Buffy frowned before reluctantly answering. "James Bond."

Dawn rolled the name around in her head, trying to get a feel for it. "Okay... Buffy Bond." Dawn giggled. "That'll strike fear into the demons and vampires. The ones who don't die laughing." She giggled again before becoming serious again under pressure from her sister's frown. "How did he take it?"

"Having a daughter sprung on him suddenly?" Buffy asked, still frowning at her earlier reaction. "He seemed to be okay with it. He didn't exactly jump for joy but he didn't deny it was possible."

"And finding out that he really has two daughters?" At Buffy's guilty look, Dawn could feel something in the pit of her stomach, almost like how she'd felt when she'd first discovered Buffy wasn't really her sister. "He doesn't know, does he?" She asked faintly, dejectedly slumping back into her seat.

"How was I supposed to tell him something like that?" Buffy asked her, and hearing the hint of stress in her voice, Dawn felt just a twinge of sympathy for her. "He knows I have a younger sister. And he does think there is something suspicious going on. But I don't know if I can trust him with something that important."

"IF you don't want to tell him anything, how'd he get the idea that something is going on?" Dawn muttered. She fidgeted in her chair, poking through the photographs again, gazing wistfully at the ones of her mother. "You'd think they would have pictures of all of us together..." she grumbled. "Stupid monks."

Leaning over the table, Buffy cautiously placed an old photograph in front of her. "This is why."

Dawn stared at it in surprise. "Who are these people? One of them looks sort of like me!" She squeaked.

"They, oh sister mine, are his parents." She picked the picture back up before adding. "Our grandparents."

Disturbed, Dawn abruptly shoved her chair back from the table and flounced out of the kitchen, feeling the need for a good diva moment to clear her head. "I need to take a walk..."

"Dawn! Come back here!" Buffy yelled at her from the kitchen, only her voice following Dawn through the apartment.

She ignored her sister's shrill voice and quickly left the apartment. She couldn't think in Buffy's presence right now. And thinking about what she'd just learned was something she desperately needed to do.

* * *

Dawn ignored the soft footsteps coming up behind her for as long as she could. Only a slayer could walk that quietly on the stone streets that Rome seemed to have in over-abundance. 

"She loves you, you know." Faith told her.

She stopped and looked at the dark haired slayer now standing to her left. Nodding her head, she agreed. "I do know that. She's proved it so many times over the years. But, some times I think she takes it too far."

"You mean the dying thing?" Faith asked curiously.

"Yes. No." Dawn struggled to put her thoughts into words. "She would have done that for any of the Scoobies, including you." At Faith's denial, Dawn just shook her head. "Yes. And you, no matter how evil you might think you were, would have done the same thing. She's my sister and it really hurt and it messed me up that she would do it, but I know enough about slayers now to know what they'll do to save the world and the people they love." She started walking again, a destination firmly in mind. "I mean how she keeps putting her life on hold for me. She didn't have to stay in Rome." Dawn didn't let Faith say anything, stopping her with a hand over her mouth, in a maneuver she'd picked up from Tara. "Hush! I'm not done. I'm sure she gave you some really good sounding reason, and it might even be true. But whatever it was she doesn't need to be the person to do it."

"Isn't that her decision to make?" Faith asked.

"Yes, but it doesn't make me feel any less guilty. She spent so much time wanting a real life outside of slaying and now she's so afraid of losing me if she does that she won't take the opportunities that come along. I'm sure this is going to be another one of them. Just watch."

Faith shook her head and Dawn could imagine just what she was thinking about the ways Summers women made life more complicated than it should be. They walked for a few more minutes, neither of them saying anything.

"Go ahead. Ask me." She prodded Faith with an elbow, knowing what she was dying to ask.

Faith stopped and perched on the edge of a small fountain they were just passing. "Okay." Looking up at the taller woman standing in front of her, she obliged. "If this Bond is Buffy's father, why is he yours also? And what about that picture?"

"She never told you why Glory was trying to kill me." Dawn stated the obvious. "And the answer to that is the answer to your question."

"Buffy said it was your story to tell, not hers." Faith acknowledged.

"We don't need to discuss the whole Glory history." Dawn told her. "It's the usual Sunnydale apocalypse tale where things aren't really what they seem, the Council interferes, and the good guys keep screwing things up until the end, when they win, beating the odds. Though I think a dead sister isn't really winning, even if the Scoobies defeated the evil Hell goddess."

"Got it." Faith snorted at her summary. "Just the usual. But what's the Bond connection? If he's anything like that picture I can see why your mom went for him ,but I can't see her doing anything like that after she was married."

"No." Dawn agreed. "You're right. That's not how it would have happened. It's simple really. I wasn't always Buffy's sister."

"Could'a fooled me!" Faith announced. "You sure act like sisters."

"Because we are." Dawn laughed at the confused expression on Faith's face. "It's a long story. The short version is that I was something else first. Some mystical object that Glory needed. Some monks did some magic and turned me into Buffy's sister. Memories and everything. And didn't tell anyone. As far as everyone knew I was always there. Willow still hasn't figured out how they did it. Glory managed to find out anyway. If you want all the gory details, Giles has them locked away in some secret safe somewhere."

"Ouch." Faith shivered. "Must have been a shock to find that out."

"Yup. I wasn't too happy." Dawn shrugged nonchalantly. "Sort of freaked out at the time. But I'm okay with it now."

"That must be why Buffy thought you'd be upset at the Bond thing." Faith mused to herself.

"Probably. But I'm really not. It's actually a relief to know why I don't look exactly like Buffy. Willow was curious and had us do a DNA test once. According to that, except for the height, age, and hair thing, we're more identical than most twins."

"So why are we out here now?" Faith asked.

"Just wanted to get away from her guilt fest for a few minutes and think about things." She reached out and briefly ran her hand through the water, watching it run off back into the fountain in the evening light. Shaking off the remaining drops, she pulled Faith to her feet. "I'll talk with her about it later. She'll be okay when she has a chance to get used to the idea. She hates it when things shake up her perfect image of Saint Mom." Dawn sighed but then brightened up. "Let's go do something fun!"

Faith looked at her in amusement. "Shouldn't we tell her?"

"Nah... she'll figure it out. We have this whole 'upset sister' thing we do. Your participation is just an added bonus." Dawn grinned at Faith. "She'll probably get there before we do."


	5. Party Girl

**Disclaimer:** See Part I  
**Pairings:** See Part I (Mostly - forget what I said about Willow/Kennedy.)  
**Summary:** See Part I  
**Spoilers:** See Part I  
**AN1:** Feedback always welcome.  
**AN2:** It's been a while. Expect the next part before Christmas. Of this year, I hope.

* * *

**Book I:** _For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that_

**Part I:** _Party Girl_

* * *

Trailing behind the rest of the small group, Willow watched their guests as unobtrusively as possible. This tour wasn't what Willow had expected when Giles had enlisted her to participate in his dog and pony show for the British cloak-n-dagger types he wanted them to work with. The older woman, apparently in charge of the others, listened attentively to Giles' narrative as they toured the Council's London complex, asking the occasional question. She seemed like any other upper level bureaucrat they'd dealt with over the years. Polite but firm. But with an unexpected grasp of the situation the Council found itself it. 

Most of her entourage, on the other hand, had failed to make much of an impression on Willow. There was the assistant, a much older man who paid close attention to everything, occasionally frowning as if taking mental notes who occasionally murmured something to a gray haired old man, introduced as an analyst, who would have made Buffy look tall.

A woman with short, dirty blonde hair, slightly taller than Dawn, had been introduced simply as an equipment specialist, though what kind of equipment she dealt with hadn't been made clear. If she had met her under other conditions, at a club or small social gathering, Willow felt the blonde would have been much more interesting, but not as the bureaucratic minion she appeared to be at the moment.

It was the final member of the group who concerned her. When they'd been introduced something about him had sent chills up and down her spine. And for some inexplicable reason she couldn't explain, she was sure he'd taken an instant dislike to her. She prided herself on being able to get along with almost anyone and found his perceived reaction disturbing and unexpected.

She'd kept a cautious, surreptitious eye on him as much as possible during the day. She had the distinct impression that he was well aware of her attention. She'd been trying unsuccessfully to figure him out but even a quick glance at his aura hadn't given her any insight into his character. There was something strange about it, something she didn't recall ever having seen before.

Although he was clearly human, his aura seemed to be obscured by a grey mist that made it hard to read. Several Wiccans from the Devon coven were expected at the holiday celebration that evening. She would have to ask them if they saw the same thing.

With one single exception, he hadn't revealed any emotions during the early morning meeting and the tour that followed. She was sure she'd seen a flicker of interest cross his face when they'd paused for a minute outside of one of the smaller training rooms Faith and Kennedy had been sparring in. They hadn't been doing anything special, just the normal things slayers did to burn off excess energy between patrols.

She thought that it was Faith he'd been interested in but she hadn't been able to confirm it. She'd been too busy ignoring Kennedy, still annoyed at her for her casual dismissal of their relationship the year before when it had become obvious that, as much as they enjoyed each other's company in bed, they really had nothing in common now that Sunnydale was gone.

Willow knew she was behaving childishly about the end of their relationship but she couldn't seem to help it. Or explain it when Xander had cornered her about it the month before. At least Buffy hadn't attempted an embarrassing intervention, like they done to her on more than one occasion. That was something she was sure she wouldn't be able to live down.

* * *

Bond was not an impatient man. Much of his career had been spent waiting for something to happen. But he really could have done without the dubious honor of being part of 'M's entourage as she was given a tour of the Council of Watchers complex in London. 'M' had seemed to be in her element as they were shown the minutia that kept the Council running, but the number of magic users wandering around was setting his teeth on edge. He knew he would have to get used to their presence if he was going to work closely with the Council or have any hope of involvement in his daughter's life. 

Especially if the redhead who'd been frowning at him almost from the beginning was going to be around. She hadn't been formally introduced but he easily recognized her as one of the people his daughter had surrounded herself with during her years in Sunnydale. The analysts were still combing through years of data that had been collected but not examined during MI6's official moratorium on supernatural research. He suspected that at some point a dossier concerning the known activities of one Willow Rosenberg, for at least the last ten years, would appear on his desk. He'd already seen dossiers concerning Buffy, Rupert Giles, and Alexander Harris and she'd been a part of their lives for a long time.

The only bright spot in the tour so far as he was concerned had been the sight of two of these much vaunted slayers working out. One of them had been Faith, the young woman his daughter had warned him away from. After seeing her in action, sparring with the other slayer, he really didn't need any further warnings. About her or any other slayers.

His foes had been surrounding themselves with dangerous and powerful women for years. He was well aware of the dangers of involving himself with one of them. They either tried to kill him or they died. Or both. He also didn't need anyone like them in his private life. And professionally, he had more alpha women in his life than he could deal with already.

The thought crossed his mind that it was a good thing Moneypenny wasn't with them. Her uncanny ability to know what he was thinking before he said anything and to take him to task for it would have gotten him in trouble more than once during the tour. He was well aware that some of his attitudes towards women were still stuck in the previous century.

As they continued with the tour, Bond became increasingly puzzled. He couldn't see where his daughter fit into this organization. Over eighty percent of this organization seemed to consist of very energetic women, either these girl-warriors or magic users like Rosenberg. The few slayers they'd seen during the tour had exuded a barely restrained power, not something he'd sensed coming from Buffy. He wondered what made her different from them, what made her so special. MI6's dossier on her hadn't been able to tell him what he wanted to know.

* * *

Buffy stood on the sidewalk, watching the taxi pull away from the curb into the late afternoon traffic that flowed by the Council offices. She counted to ten, slowly, before picking up her carry-on. It had been an exhausting day and she knew it wouldn't be fair to storm into Giles' office in the mood she was in. Somehow, her rental car reservation had been lost. The explanation hadn't made sense even after hearing it four times. They'd agreed to send her another car for the next day but she'd been forced to take a cab in from the airport, at no small expense. 

Normally, she would have called Andrew, or Giles' assistant, to arrange transportation but when she'd called the day before, everyone had seemed to be in the middle of preparing for the holiday party the next day and the upcoming Board meeting. She hadn't wanted to distract them with her simple transportation problems. A decision the cab ride had caused her to regret.

Walking up to the large entrance, she pushed in the door and tried to casually saunter in past the receptionist desk as if she hadn't just spent the last hour stuck in traffic in a cab with a driver intent on displaying his knowledge of American television trivia. Giving the receptionist a slight smile as she slipped past, Buffy focused on her current concern - Faith.

Dawn had flown in from Rome the week before, as soon as her internship was completed, leaving Buffy to deal with the task of packing up their apartment and arranging for their personal possessions to be shipped to London. She'd been happy to turn the apartment over to her new hand picked coordinator for the Council's just created Mediterranean region. She wasn't upset with the move, although she'd felt very comfortable in Rome and was sad to leave it behind. Living in London would allow her to be near her sister and to spend time with people she hadn't seen much of since leaving Sunnydale behind.

The only reason she'd agreed to Dawn's quick escape from Rome had been Faith. She hadn't heard much from the other slayer since her visit to Rome several months before but she selfishly wanted Faith nearby if she and Dawn were going to be living in England. She knew Willow and Giles would have wondered why she thought that Faith needed to work out of the same office but she hadn't been able to explain it to herself, let alone them. So she'd avoided mentioning it.

Luckily there'd been another way to arrange for Faith to move to London. All she'd had to do was mention to Dawn that Faith might start working out of the London office instead of her current roving assignment if she were given enough incentive. Knowing her sister and the way her mind worked, she hadn't had to do anything else except sit back and watch. Before she'd even arrived from Rome, Dawn had mapped out a very detailed plan that seemed guaranteed to get Faith to the London office and keep her there. All with Giles' blessing.

And Faith's agreement to the move had been a forgone conclusion. Buffy knew that Dawn would have Faith wrapped around her finger faster than Giles could translate an obscure prophecy in Sumerian. It took some doing but she'd become used to dismissing any feelings of jealousy that arose whenever she thought about Dawn having Faith to herself for extended periods of time.

It had been made abundantly clear to her that, although Dawn and Faith had a relationship that she couldn't begin to understand, it was strictly platonic. It was something she'd learned the hard way over the last two years. Any interference in the Dawn-Faith dynamic tended to result in two angry brunettes not speaking to her for days, if not weeks, which bothered her more than she liked to admit or even understood.

* * *

With the Council holiday party in full swing, Bond felt very out of place and wondered what he had done to merit 'M's insistence that he attend this function. The others had been allowed to escape back to their offices after the conclusion of the day's excruciatingly boring tour of the Council complex. As far as he could tell, ninety percent of the attendees were in their early twenties, if not younger, and even if he were inclined to become involved with someone who could break him in half like a dried twig with almost no effort, they had all been declared off limits by 'M'. 

He had to admit to himself that part of his problem with this event was that he found it disturbing to be around so many young women who knew they would be lucky to survive into their late twenties and who seemed determined to experience as much of life as possible before then. And try as hard as he could, it had been impossible to forget how hard the lives of these women were. The Council records he had been given to read over the last few weeks had drilled into his head, with a vengeance, that these young women had no choice.

That his daughter, a frail seeming young woman, was one of these women added doubly to his desire to spend the evening with his head in a bottle of his finest Scotch. Not that his elderly housekeeper would let him get away with it. The only consolation was that the Council Head, Rupert Giles, had been sympathetic to his plight, promising something more appropriate for the older adults in attendance the following night where he could meet the people who'd managed to avoid this evening's event.

One of the few things he had to amuse himself had been watching the dynamics of the people present, a skill he had been taught long ago when he'd first started with MI6. Over the years, on more than one occasion it had saved his life. Careful observation could tell one a lot about the relationships between the people at a large gathering. This one was no exception.

The people in the room seemed to revolve around three people, one of them being, surprisingly enough to him, his daughter. The person he'd expected to be at the center of the party, Giles, had a much smaller following. Rosenberg, the rather acerbic redhead who'd been attached to his Council tour all day had a similar small sized 'court'. After careful observation of the way people moved between the three groups, he'd detected subtle signs that his daughter was the center of all activity in the room.

From the moment he'd first entered the Council complex he'd been aware that she was important to the past successes of the group but tonight it had become clear that she was even more important than he'd thought or anyone else in MI6, except possibly 'M', realized. He wasn't sure whether to be proud or worried.

Looking at it objectively, as he'd been trained, if he'd walked into the room without knowing anyone there he would have assumed that Buffy was the ultimate authority in the Council and that other two were just her lieutenants. Which was totally counter to his analysis of her after their brief meeting several months ago. She had not exhibited the signs he was used to seeing in someone who appeared to have the level of influence and control that he was sure he was seeing now. It was very puzzling.

To add to the confusing picture, which he needed to discuss with 'M' before things went any further and their organizations became hopelessly entwined, there were the two young women that he had yet to be introduced to but who seemed to occupy such an important part in his daughter's life, appearing in almost all of the recent surveillance photos. They seemed to move independently of the other groups in the room.

Dawn, the younger one who looked so much like a younger version of his own mother, never seemed to leave the orbit of this Faith. And while all of the women in the room were dangerous to some degree, either by being slayers, the companions of slayers, or experienced magic wielders, he sensed that she took it to a much higher level. She wasn't just dangerous, she embodied a deadliness he rarely encountered.

He had yet to determine what her real role was within the Council. The training session he had witnessed that morning hadn't provided him with any clues to her purpose in the organization, though he suspected from the little he'd overheard that she was their equivalent of a double-0 agent. He suspected her own dossier, which he planned to procure in the morning - complete or not, would make for interesting reading.

One thing he had noticed was that he could always find her, not matter how crowded the room became, by observing Buffy. It was almost as if there was a bright red string joining them together. He hadn't been able to determine what kind of relationship the two women shared but he was going to find out, though he knew his daughter probably wouldn't appreciate his efforts, even if it were under the guise of cooperation between MI6 and the Council.

By becoming a part of his world, she was now a target for any of his enemies with a grudge. If he was going to protect her from his enemies, he needed to know Buffy's strengths and vulnerabilities. And with her earlier declaration that Faith was off limits, he suspected he'd found one of the latter. He wasn't as concerned about Dawn's role in Buffy's life. Given her profession, he assumed Buffy was already aware of the dangers to her sister and took suitable precautions.

* * *

Looking around the room, Buffy hoped it wasn't obvious how bored and tired she was. She wasn't in the mood to play the political and social games that had seemed to dominate her time all evening, but no one else needed to know that. From the things she'd heard and been asked, she suspected that Giles had taken her move to London as a sign and had begun quietly prepping his immediate staff for his retirement. 

The sooner she could get some sleep the better, if she intended to confront him about it, hopefully before he did something foolish during the Board meeting later in the week. At this point she would even take a corner of the ratty old couch in the game room. She'd had to listen to Willow ranting about the 'bad vibes' she'd been getting from the 'Bond guy' almost from the moment she'd set foot in the office that afternoon. And just the thought of the guilt trip Willow would slap her with when she found out he was her father was enough to make her head ache.

Although Willow had eventually run out of steam over her father, her ranting hadn't gotten any better at the party. Faith and her sister had shown up late to the party, giving an annoyed Willow additional ammunition for her venting session. She'd been especially vocal about their non-appearance in the offices for the last week, upset that Faith was 'stealing' so much of her 'Dawnie-time'.

Buffy loved Willow, she really did, but her ability to obsess over the smallest thing for hours on end was very exhausting. It had seemed to get worse in the months since Willow's relationship with Kennedy had faded into a historical footnote in the lives of the Scoobies. Buffy suspected that, with Xander now on an extended trip to Australia, everyone was too afraid to say anything to her about it and that, as the designated best friend, she would have to find time to take Willow in hand and find out what was really wrong.

Looking around over the heads of the people who'd attached themselves to her during the evening, she noticed that the party had begun to die down. Giles had already given her the signal that she was free for the rest of the night. Faith and Dawn had managed to slip away almost an hour earlier but she was sure she could easily find them if she needed to. Although she couldn't help worrying, she knew that as long as Faith and Dawn were together they were reasonably safe.

She was preparing to say her goodbyes and escape when she caught sight of her father headed her way. She'd managed to avoid him all evening, not that he made that a hard task. He hadn't looked it to her but she would be willing to bet almost anything that he'd been extremely uncomfortable spending the evening around so many young women he couldn't touch, she thought, almost maliciously. She wasn't about to begrudge her father his pursuit of companionship but even given what she'd learned over the years, there were limits to her tolerance if he pursued them in her presence.

One of the newer trainers, someone they'd managed to steal away from the British SAS, had spent an inordinate amount of time in combat zones. Buffy had spent several weeks with him the previous summer and had been struck by his comment that the effects of knowing that you might die within the next twenty-four hours should not be ignored by those in command unless they liked suicidal troops. And this was with normal soldiers who rarely saw action.

It certainly explained the highs and lows of her life. Even slayers, the ultimate in adaptable humans, couldn't take that kind of pressure indefinitely. They needed some way to alleviate the stress. She wondered how her father dealt with it. If she understood what Giles had told her correctly, his life was a constant chain of death defying misadventures.

Even with the drastic increase in slayer survivability rates, all of the Council's slayers were well aware of their own mortality, leading them to approach life with an enthusiasm that took no prisoners. Some slayer was going to eventually target him, no matter how much they were discouraged. She just hoped they all survived the inevitable fallout.

* * *

He'd had several months to plan how he was going to get to know his daughter, once she was living in London. But all he'd really accomplished was a grudging acceptance of her existence. He'd always prided himself on being quick on his feet and flexible so finding himself at such a loss was an unfamiliar and disconcerting experience. 

He wasn't entirely sure how the slayer physiology worked, but as he approached Buffy he could see that she was almost asleep on her feet. He suspected that the moment she was alone she would find a way to escape the gathering. This was probably his best chance to talk with her, when her defenses were down.

"We haven't had a chance to talk." He told her when, after a quick round of introductions to the people gathered around her, they were left alone.

"Talking would be good." she murmured, dropping her glass onto the tray of a passing waiter.

"Would you like to take a walk?" Bond asked.

"Okay." She said. "Though not for long. If I stay up too late the whole Cinderella thing happens. Kind of scary, especially the shoes and hair."

He smiled politely at her attempt at humour, not quite sure what she meant but willing to play along. They walked silently through the almost empty complex.

"You'll have to pardon the appearance of interfering in your life," he began as they reached the lobby.

"Go right ahead." She said, pushing open the door. "It's generally considered open season for anyone with even a remote connection - friends, family, even enemies think they know better than I do how I should live my life."

Bond frowned at her sarcastic tone. "I've been observing you and your friends and one thing that concerns me is this Faith," he told her as they stepped out onto the street, getting right to the point.

"Faith? Faith is not a topic open for discussion." Buffy told him, her eyes flashing in the dim light. "We can talk about my atrocious taste in men, my hair, my clothes, even my shoes, but Faith is off limits."

"If the Council is going to work with us, everything is open for discussion." He said. "We can't afford the luxury of secrets."

Before answering him, Buffy started walking briskly down the street. "I'm sure you can send out your little spies and dig up all the dirt on her," She said, "but that won't really tell you anything useful about her. The Council and its rules made my life difficult and I hated them, but I was lucky. Faith is the perfect example of what could happen when the old Council made a complete mess of things."

"The old Council?" He wondered at the venom in her voice. During his exposure to the current organization any mention of the old Council and the way it operated had been treated as if it were ancient history. But to his daughter it obviously wasn't. He wondered how many others felt the same way and if it would cause MI6 any problems.

Stopping under a streetlight, she looked up at him for a moment, as if measuring his soul. "It's really simple, when you think about it. Take someone who has already been screwed by life, poster child for how not to raise a child, give her a few months of hope, of power, of acceptance when she finds out she is no longer helpless. Give her a purpose. Not necessarily a future, but she didn't really have one before that anyway."

"And then the person who rescued her, who had given her hope, is murdered in front of her and she barely escapes. So she runs. To the only other person she thinks can help. And it works for a little while but her world, her past is so different from what she finds that she has almost no hope of fitting in. But no one even notices. They are too busy with their own problems. And then, when something happens she doesn't think anyone will forgive and she tries to hide it, take away what little she's managed to carve out for herself. Punish her for an accident." She looked away, towards some distant point down the street. "How do you think she reacted?"

"It's worse when your enemies were once your friends." Bond said, hearing the pain in her voice. "But you can never trust them again."

"She wasn't just a friend." She told him, her voice low, looking down at her hands. "There were only two of us then. Two slayers. No one else understood what it was like. I don't think they understand even now what it was like to almost kill her. To watch her rotting in a hospital room while everyone pretended to forget about her. She and I have come to an understanding since then, but I don't think the blood will ever come off."

"There's almost always a price to pay when the world is at stake." He told her. "If we're lucky it won't be someone we know or care about."

"I don't think I've ever been that lucky." Buffy told him.

"Can you trust her with your sister?" He asked, curious about her reasons. Buffy seemed to believe that Faith had reformed. He had nothing to judge her by, other than with standards that he knew most people believed had become outmoded years ago. By those standards Faith was as dangerous as the evil she fought and not to be ever trusted.

"She couldn't be in better hands." Buffy said. "We might have been enemies, but they've had their own special connection for almost as long as Faith and I have known each other."

"So, your relationship with Faith..." he stumbled for a moment, not quite sure how to phrase it. There'd been a passion in her voice when speaking about Faith that had been missing in their previous encounter.

"Faith and I don't have a relationship." He couldn't help the expression of disbelief that crossed his face at her words. "Other than agreeing that killing each other over something that happened when we were teenagers is sort of pointless." she added.

"You seem very protective of her." He murmured in surprise.

"I have my reasons." Buffy said. "She fills a role no-one else can."

"She's a weakness." Bond told her bluntly. "A danger to those around her. To you and your organization."

"No. She's not." Buffy told him. He could almost see the frost forming around her words. "She's why we work so hard to provide a life, a support system for the girls out there like Faith, forced by fate to defend people who would throw them away in the trash. Seeing how far she's come makes us stronger."

* * *

Buffy stalked off down the street, leaving him behind. She'd managed to forget that her new father was still a man. And one who came from a very formal and stuffy era. Discussing her life with him, even in the vaguest terms was not something she wished to continue. Especially when it involved Faith. He wasn't going to see things in the same way. 

She'd tried to make it appear that there was a valid reason for her attitude towards Faith but she didn't think she'd even remotely come close. She'd had to stop before she became too emotional, too incoherent. Not that it was really a surprise. Thinking about Faith often had that effect on her.

With no real destination in mind, several minutes later she found herself standing at the entrance to a local garden, breathing in the smell of freshly cut grass. Hearing a soft noise, she turned around quickly. The sensation of something heavy pricking her in the neck preceded her into a suffocating darkness.

**TBC**

* * *

**Note:** The title comes from Rudyard Kipling's poem - "Tommy"


End file.
